Ned Zombie

I kind of forgot about this blog so I figured it's time to give an update for my thousands of reader.

I've been pretty busy this year moving from Atlanta back to Pennsylvania and starting mobile application development for work. It's pretty much taken up almost all of my time, but thankfully it's starting to die down a bit.

More importantly, next month I'll be starting a master cartoon class taught by Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life. Hopefully learning from an award-winning animation professional will motivate me enough to finally get an animated web series started. I've already been drawing some ideas so I'm prepared going into the class and have also been following the steps outlined in Joe's book, Creating Animated Cartoon with Character.

I think I'm going to take the characters from Punch Card Zombies and make an animated series about them when they were kids. It was actually the original idea of Ned Zombie as a kid that led to Punch Card Zombies a year or two ago. So I've re-activated the domain name of www.NedZombie.com and hopefully sometime this year will actually get a full episode completed.

If you know of any musicians or voice-over artists that want to do some work for free send them my way. My goal is to just make an entertaining animated web series as a side-project, not to make any money. So compensation will be in the form of thank-you's and high-fives. Seems like everyone's always trying to make money off everything they do anymore, not sure whatever happened to making projects for fun.

Donate to my Mustache for Childhood Cancer

Thanksgiving and Christmas are soon approaching, which in Atlanta means that it's time for men to grow mustaches to raise money for childhood cancer. From November 2 through December 10 myself, as well as a large band of mustached brothers, will be accepting donations to help fight childhood cancer.

Over the next few weeks, Mustaches for Kids Atlanta will be updating their site showcasing the progress of the growers' staches.

If you are interested in donating to my mustache please click here or go to: http://www.atlantamustache.com/donate/ and select "Mustache For Kids Atlanta" in the program area drop down box and type "Greg Pugh" into the comments box. It can be for $1 or for $1000, any little bit helps.

All proceeds will go to CURE Childhood Cancer. I will also be documenting my stache growth and making a separate page for it coming soon, so I'll keep you posted.

11 Seconds Competition July 2010

I'm working on the July edition of the 11 Second Club animation. You can see how the animation has progressed in the past 3 days.

Pencil Test 1

Starting to ink

Current Progress

Click Here

Punch Card Zombies Promo Contest Drawing Complete

Here's the finished drawing, still waiting for a correct answer from someone who provides a name so I know who to send the PDF to. Just name the Neoclassical painting it's a spoof of the the original artist in the comments section.

UPDATE: WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER
The answer is the Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David. April C has provided the artist below and previously mentioned the title.

Here's a little background information on David's painting: The painting illustrates the three sons of Horatius swear on their swords, held by their father, that they will defend Rome to the death. The principal sources for the story behind David's Oath are the first book of Livy (sections 24-6) which was elaborated by Dionysius in book 3 of his Roman Antiquities. However, the moment depicted in David's painting is his own invention.

Punch Card Zombie Promo Contest

Taking a break from animation for a bit to do a Punch Card Zombie illustration, here's the rough draft of it.

First person to leave a comment of the name of the painting and artist it's a spoof of wins a high-resolution PDF of it once the illustration is completed. It's a fairly well-known painting hence the lack of a better prize, but it's always fun to win something. Last name of the artist will do, but you'll look smarter if you provide the first and middle name as well.

UPDATE: Here's another work in progress picture. Hint: it's a painting in Neoclassical style.

11 Second Journal

I recently found out about an online competition that is based on 11 second animations. Essentially, you have 1 month to put together an animation that matches an audio clip picked by the company. The animators that have entered in past competitions seem extremely talented and I have little chance of winning, but I've decided to make it a goal to submit a cartoon every month. Even if I don't complete the animations to the point where I would like, I'll still submit them as practice to hopefully produce cartoons better and faster as time progresses.

Here's a screenshot of the June's cartoon I'm currently working on. Let's see how far I get by the end of the month.

So Many Projects, So Little Time

I think I have Animation Attention Deficit Disorder, or A.A.D.D. as we faux-medical professionals call it. Right now I'm sitting on 4 versions of my new website that are partially complete because I end up hating them half way through, 2 cartoons that are barely started and an illustration for the Air Force that's nearly complete. At least I was able to finish the artwork for a Droid App a friend is in the process of building.

Here's a screenshot from "Proofs". The storyboard is done and animation has been started, but I can't do anything else until I begin voice-over work. I haven't been able to do voices that I think fit the characters yet, so I've been putting it off for awhile now.

Here's a screenshot from "Mosquito". I originally started this concept for a film competition about mosquitoes, but the deadline is sometime this month so there's no way I'd complete it in time. I might still complete it regardless since the character design is already done.

New Punch Card Zombies Comic

The latest comic is up at www.PunchCardZombies.com so go check it out. As a little bonus I figured I would include a picture showing the progress from rough sketch to final drawing.

The Verdict is in for "Burned Out"

Two days after I exported the web version of my new cartoon "Burned Out", I got some feedback from three industry professionals. Here's what they had to say:


"Very funny Greg. I liked it. Simple, funny gags. Simple storyline. Good job. I would give you an A.

- Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life & Camp Lazlo


"This is elegant in its simplicity. A classic struggle rendered with great visuals and great timing. And most important, it made me laugh. Nicely done!"

- Andrew Sellon, voice-over artist from Sellon Solutions

"looks good man! like the b&w feel w/ the light being the only color"

- Stephen Brooks, Rubber Onion Animation, via twitter

Other reviews have been positive as well so that's a good sign. Glad everyone enjoys the cartoon.

Burned Out - COMPLETE

I spoke to Amanda Rogers last night, she and Mike Matta finished mixing the track for the short. Now I've exported a web version of the SWF file, a web version of the MOV file and a DVD version of the MOV. I'm going to put together a DVD version without a menu for the Animation Attack Film Festival and a DVD version with a menu and special features for friends and family. Hopefully I'll get to the DVD today and tomorrow. Until they're made here are some links to the web versions. Enjoy!

GP Animations

Newgrounds

Vimeo

YouTube

New Cartoon

Right now I'm toying with the idea of starting another short cartoon. "Burned Out" is in post-production (I guess that's what you'd call it, I don't have professional film experience so I have no clue) and I need a new project on which to work. Currently the Halo Reach Beta game has been taking up a lot of my free time, but that will be expiring soon so I'll actually have ambition to be productive again.

I'm in the process of drawing up a storyboard for a new cartoon called "Proofs". Traditionally, pen and paper are used for storyboards, but I prefer to use Adobe Flash. It saves a few trees by not using paper and it's also easier to go from storyboard to finished product if I create both in the same software. I believe Toon Boom Animate and Toon Boom Storyboard Pro let you do this as well, but I haven't had a chance to play around with the software enough to where I would feel comfortable creating a cartoon in them.

Here's a screenshot from "Proofs" so far. If I had to put a time frame on this project I would say it's about 1% complete so it may be awhile before anything official is up and running.

Me Looking Goofier Than Usual

So I recently started following Stephen Brooks from Rubber Onion (I suggest you do the same) and he's doing a VLOG of his progress as he creates a new animation. It seems like a great idea because he can track his progress and reference back to it later and followers can see another animator's creative process.

I've attempted to do the same, though I'm a bit late because my cartoon is almost finished so there's not much to record except me doing some minor voice over work. Here's my 2 VLOGs for your entertainment though.

To Update GPAnimations.com or Not to Update...

I'm toying with the idea of designing an all-new homepage for GP Animations. My short-film project for Animation Attack Atlanta is coming it's final stages now with only music, web version exporting, DVD menus and DVD authoring left to do. I know I should switch focus back onto Punch Card Zombies when I'm done, but we'll see how inspired I feel at the time.

I've been conversing back and forth with Joe Murray (Rocko's Modern Life & Camp Lazlo) and offered some help and funds on his new venture of creating an independent animation web channel. You can donate as well:" Joe Murray's Project. I can't really see him needing my help all that often though since he did create two successful cable television cartoons, but if he needs someone to help with Flash work I'm available.

So I guess my other option is make a new homepage, which I kind of dread. I like designing webpages, I just hate writing CSS & HTML and screaming at the computer because the preview looks completely different in Internet Explorer than it does in Firefox. The other option is to go back to an all Flash website, which for search engine optimization and lack of mobile support reasons is not the best option. Maybe I should just learn HTML5 so by the time I get the energy to make a new site in 2018 it'll be up to date...

New Cartoon Progress

Last night I recorded a few more sound effects for the new cartoon. I didn't get around to building a sound box to put the microphone in and I don't have a recording studio handy so I had to improvise by putting the mike in a bookshelf and surrounding it with pillows. Seemed to work pretty well after some fine tuning in Audacity.

After I got the sounds imported I did a test to see how the movie will function on a DVD. I exported the QuickTime file then imported it into Adobe Encore. I did a test on an HD projector and the quality seemed pretty good. Just finishing up some minor details and awaiting the soundtrack by Amanda Rogers and the film will be ready for the Animation Attack Atlanta Film Festival. I'll have to make a separate version for online viewing as well so users won't have to wait an hour for a DVD-quality clip to load.

New Cartoon For Animation Attack

Lately I've been working on the short film I'm making for the Animation Attack Festival in Atlanta. Right now I'm probably about 80-90% done with the animation. Once it's complete I'm going to send it to Amanda Rogers, a very talented musician from Massachusetts, who offered to create a custom soundtrack for it. I first discovered her music from MySpace Music about 3 years ago and she was gracious enough to let me use one of her work for my cartoon America 2027. I'm confident anything she contributes to the project will be gold.

Here is a screenshot of the storyboard and then one of the cartoon as it is now to show the progression. The grid marks will not appear in the final rendering, they're purely for my use only.

New Short Film in Progress

So after designing the logo for Animation Attack! in Atlanta I decided to make a short film to show at the festival as well.

This may put the Punch Card Zombies first cartoon behind by a bit, but it's a nice break using a different animation style. It's probably going to be in the drawing style of my film America 2027 to try to meet the submission deadline.

So far the storyline is done and I'm working on the animation. After that it'll be onto the soundtrack and sound effects and DVD conversion to show on the big screen.

Animation Attack 2010, Atlanta, Georgia

Last Friday I became aware of Animation Attack! which is an annual festival in Atlanta in August that showcases independent animated films. I contacted them and decided to draw up a logo for their 2010 festival, which is during Independent Film Month.

The logo is now up on their site: http://www.festivalleague.com/animationattack.cfm and there's also a section where you can submit your own independent film: http://www.festivalleague.com/submissionform.cfm

The latest deadline for film submission is May 1, 2010 for you budding artists and filmmakers out there. The Independent Film Month will be running August 6-8, 13-15, 20-22 and 27-29. Animation Attack! will be on August 27 through 29 if you are interested in attending. More information can be found on their homepage: http://www.festivalleague.com/info.cfm

Punch Card Zombies Web Comic #4

Oh the joys of taking days off of work then having to return.

Punch Card Zombies Comic #4

New Punch Card Zombies Web Comic

Took the day off of work to get a root canal (fun?), but instead I think the dentist is just going to confirm that I do indeed need a root cancel then refer me to someone else. Didn't know there was bureaucracy in the dental world but oh well.

Anyway, since I had some free time I drew up another web comic for Punch Card Zombies. Punch Card Zombies

Drawing Ned Zombie from Punch Card Zombies

I had some time tonight to play around with Toon Boom Animate some more, I've learned quite a bit about the program, but I'm still far from an expert. After I grew tired of failing at new software, I wanted to test out Camtasia Recording Studio a little more. I first got the demo disk at Flash Camp Philly last year and I used it for a presentation I gave at work, but never opened it after that.

I recorded how I drew Ned Zombie in Adobe Flash. Pretty much I just do a rough sketch then trace over that with basic shapes. I was in debate if I wanted to the cartoon to always look sketched out or if I wanted it to be more refined. Eventually I decided to do the more traditional method and have smooth lines.

New Comic

Posted a new comic on Punch Card Zombies' homepage. This one shows Sam's cubical at Zombeets, Inc. and also hints that he's the graphic designer of the advertising campaigns there. I haven't done too much research, but hopefully the internet isn't already saturated with web comics and cartoons about office zombies. Judging by the sudden surge of popularity of zombies, it very well might be done to death so to speak. I'm not trying to make any money off of the cartoon so I'm not really concerned, it's just a project I enjoy creating.

I got to play around with Toon Boom Animate over the weekend. It seems very similar to Flash in some aspects and very different from Flash in other aspects. I think with about a solid week of playing around with it I'd be comfortable enough to use it for animations. I may continue to make the first episode of Punch Card Zombies in Flash anyway since I already started the storyboard in instead of Toon Boom Storyboard Pro.

Flash vs. Toon Boom

So I was just about to get started mapping out the storyboard and animatic for the first episode of Punch Card Zombies, but first I did my daily reading of blogs and tweets that I follow in the animation/digital design realm. I started to notice a lot of blogs about how Flash is going to be phased out in the future, HTML5 is the new wave, .FLA files are going to be extinct, Toon Boom is better for animation, etc. Seemed a little disheartening since I pretty much make a living off of Adobe Flash.

Thankfully, my company is a little behind on software upgrades and our clients still demand Flash player 8 and actionScript 2.0 so we don't have a need to supply the latest and greatest technology out there. However, for my personal animation projects I was considering switching to Toon Boom to see just how much better it actually is for traditional 2D digital animation. It seems like it'd be like taking a few steps back at first since I would have to learn a whole new interface and software system, but maybe once I grew accustomed to the new layout it'd streamline the process. Does anyone have experience with Flash vs. Toon Boom and is one better than the other for certain projects?

New Punch Card Zombies Comic

I drew a new little comic for Punch Card Zombies, it's on the web page. Enjoy.

http://PunchCardZombies.com/

Today's Projects

Today I actually had some free time so I figured I'd spend it working in Photoshop and Flash. I tried find classes in the area for medical illustration and animation, but it seems that all of the local colleges want you to enroll to get a degree in order to take their courses.

I opted to just look at pictures of skulls and try drawing them in Photoshop as general practice. After I got bored of looking at human skeletons, I worked a little bit more on the drawings for Punch Card Zombies. I got most of the turn-around animation of Ned done before I had more important work that needed to get done. Right now he kind of does an Exorcist head turn as you can see on the web page. the project is coming along slowly but surely.

PunchCardZombies.com

Punch Card Zombies is my new upcoming web series. It's about Ned Zombie, a white collar zombie who works for Zombeet Inc., and his co-workers who also happen to be the living dead. Ned is in charge of advertising, where he tries to win over zombie customers into the realm of vegetarianism with his catch phrase "Beets are like Brains, but Better!" Unfortunately, most of the zombie population doesn't want to give up their carnivorous lifestyle, but Ned and his co-workers are determined to change the world. Check out www.PunchCardZombies.com for new updates and news about how far the series is progressing.

2010 Goals

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions, but I do think it's important to make a list of goals to try to accomplish so I've compiled a list of things I would like to do in 2010, both personal and professional.

1. Create a new animated web cartoon


2. Eat less meat products that come from large corporations that abuse animals


3. Eat more locally grown produce


4. Spend less money on unnecessary gadgets and products


5. Support more causes and charities I believe in


6. Finally buy a new car and retire my 92 Toyota Paseo


7. Travel more


8. Learn more about actionScript 3.0 and the latest software in my field


9. Try to see my friends and family from PA more

Those are just a few things I can think of, hopefully I'll be able to accomplish most if not all of them this year.

Wacom Cintiq 21ux

Last week I received the Wacom Cintiq 21ux at work to aid in the creation of all of the custom animations and illustrations our clients have been requesting as of lately. I'm very privledged to work for a company that is willing to invest so much into their employees' hardware and software needs. After getting a week or so to get used to it I've decided to compare it against the 12wx Cintiq I use for personal use.

The only big difference is the size. In case you're wondering, the 21 in 21ux and 12 in 12wx are related to the number of inches the screens measure diagonally. The w in 12wx simply means that it's widescreen format. The 21ux is pretty massive and requires a decent amoutn of desk space. Here it is in relation to the size of a red delicious apple (it was the only thing I had in my hand at the time).

Having the extra space is a huge advantage. On the 12wx, I usually can't fit all of my windows for Photoshop and Flash on one screen and usually end up dragging them to a second or third monitor, however with the 21ux, no additional monitors are necessary. The drawing surface is large enough for even the most detailed drawings. One small advantage the 21ux has over the 12wx is that it connects with one fat cord that contains the power, USB and DVI plug. The 12wx has a DVI plug that goes into a box that stems into DVI, power and USB cords. Kind of a hassle having a little block box laying around, but I supposed to save the extra $1000 most people will deal with it.

Personally, I would say if you can afford the $1900-$2000 you should definitely pick up the 21ux over the 12wx, the size difference alone compensate for the extra cash. Not to say the 12wx isn't a great piece of technology, drawing directly on the screen is a huge advantage over most tablet in the market right now.

Adobe Certified Associate of Flash

Yesterday I finally decided to take my certification of exam to become an associate of Adobe Flash.

However, to get to this point it was quite the ordeal. Not because I had to learn the software, I've been using it for six versions now so I wasn't worried about that, but because testing centers in my area are scarce. In fact, there's one in all of northwest Georgia apparently.

Since the exam is work-related my company allowed me to schedule it on my lunch break and to reserve a conference room. The day of the exam, the test center called me and said they're going to let me take it when I get to my home PC and that I can log-in from there. Later that night, I paid for the exam, installed all the plug-ins and tried to take the exam. After about three hours of errors, tech support and back and forth on telephone calls I decided to try it another day. Finally, the next day I was able to go to a learning center in Atlanta to take the exam on a computer, which I'm pretty sure is at least a decade old and ran very slowly, but at least I finally got to take the exam.

To become Adobe Certified was more of a personal goal to show that not only have I been using Flash for 8 years and am qualified for my position, but just as proof that I know it well enough for Adobe to recognize it. Maybe in the future I'll try the Adobe Certified Expert exam, but for now I'm just happy to finally have this exam completed.

Flash Camp Philadelphia is Around the Corner

Flash Camp Philadelphia is coming up on November 8th and ironically I had to move to Georgia to be able to attend this year. When I lived in Pennsylvania, I'm very confident that none of my former employers would care enough about improving my knowledge of Flash enough to send me to any conferences. However, MC Strategies here in Atlanta, is a big advocate in supporting their employees work-related interests and is sending me to Philly for 3 days at no expense to me.

I first found out about Flash Camp Philadelphia from a Google search of Flash conferences in 2009. Upon researching the event I was immediately intrigued. A gathering of everyone who has an interest in Flash and its recent developments all in one centralized location. Sounds great.

A look at the scheduled lineup of speakers looks very promising as well. A Flash enthusiast or professional is sure to find a speaker that will perk his or her interests at every time frame. Personally, I'm excited to see what the camp will have to offer and if it's as good as it looks like it's going to be, I'll be sure to sign up for next year's event as well.

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

Today is Blog Action Day. For those of you who don't know, Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. This year's discussion is Climate Change.

You always hear people talk about climate change, but how does it actually affect you directly? Honestly, besides the fact that I've been using sunscreen more often each summer, I haven't noticed too much of a difference. Regardless, I still try to do my part by recycling whenever possible, car pooling or using mass transit, saving electricity and the like because it's been embedded into my head that it's the right thing to do. No reason to kill off the planet prematurely if I don't have to.

I was curious to see some direct affects it will have on us that we'll notice in our everyday lives so I did some research. Here are some things that I found:

Warmer temperatures are killing off relatives of potato and peanut plants - I will not be happy when I go to a restaurant and won't be able to order french fries or potato salad. This cannot stand.

Higher temperatures create dry spells and stagnant pools of water that produce more mosquitoes and at the same time kill off creatures that eat mosquitoes - I can't even play frisbee or washers in my yard now without coming back inside looking like I have a strange case of chicken pox. Not looking forward to more mosquitoes at all.

Higher CO2 levels cause poison ivy to grow bigger and more resilient - Again with something that causes itching and skin irritation, fantastic. I spent most of my childhood covered in poison ivy from playing outside. Stay out of the woods.

Gray Whales, Emperor Penguins, Frogs, Arctic Foxes, Koala Bears, and Walruses are dying from raised CO2 levels and warmer temperatures - What did they ever do to you? I am the walrus.

The Pine Bark Beetle, which used to be held in check by colder temperatures is now running rampant and killing off forests - Guess we'll all have fake Christmas trees in the future. Hope this doesn't happen in my dad's lifetime because he's the Clark Griswold of Christmas trees.

Ash trees are dying - Personally, this won't affect me too much, but I know a lot of people won't be happy. Ash trees are what are used to make all wooden baseball bats so unless we make a change or start using metal bats, baseball could be in trouble. I suppose they could use pine instead, but those are dying as well.

Au Revoir Pinot Noir - Pinot is made from thin skinned grapes that thrive in colder climates. Temperature changes have started to cause these grapes to bake on their vines.

Those are just a few direct changes I found in my research, I imagine there's probably a few thousand more. Just something to think about before you drive alone to work in your H2 or order take out in styrofoam containers.

Source: Center for American Progress